Regis de Trobiand

Philippe Regis Denis de Keredern de Trobiand (4 June 1816-15 July 1897) was a Union Army Major-General during the American Civil War and the Plains Indian Wars.

Biogrpahy
Philippe Regis de Keredern de Trobiand was born in Tours, France in 1816 to an aristocratic family, and his father's service under King Charles X of France meant that Regis would be excluded from serving under King Louis Philippe I after the 1830 July Revolution. In 1841, in answer to a dare by his friends, he emigrated to the United States at the age of 25 and became a popular member of the New York City elite, writing novels and marrying an heiress. From 1854 to 1861, he was the joint editor of Le Courrier des Etats-Unis. When the American Civil War broke out, he was commissioned into the Union Army and given command of the 55th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment. His regiment was attached to the Army of the Potomac in September 1861, and he first saw combat at the Battle of Williamsburg during the Peninsula Campaign. On 2 July 1863, during the Battle of Gettysburg, he distinguished himself with his spirited defense of the Wheatfield, but he lost a third of his men in the process. Unfortunately, it would not be until 10 April 1864 that he was promoted to Brigadier-General due to J.H. Hobart Ward's dismissal. Later in the war, he commanded a division during the Siege of Petersburg, and he was mustered out on 15 January 1866. After a brief return to France, he assumed command of Fort Stevenson in the American West in 1867, painting a series of landscapes and portraits of friendly Native Americans. During the 1870s, he served in Utah during tensions with the Mormons and commanded Fort Steele in Wyoming. On 4 January 1875, he ejected eight Democrats from the Louisiana state legislature in New Orleans after they were found to have been elected through irregularities, and he withdrew in 1877 when Reconstruction came to a close. In 1877, he suppressed railroad strikes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and he retired in 1879 later settled in New Orleans and Bayport, New York, where he died in 1897 at the age of 81.